Remembering Adrian Mole and Sue Townsend on their birthdays today

[OneBusyFinch]

oh these wonderful wonderful books, still make me laugh and I do re-read frequently!

Adrian would have been 58 today and the superb Sue Townsend would have been celebrating her 80th birthday.

Whenever I eat beetroot I think of Bert Baxter and his sandwiches. Such a funny book. I genuinely laughed out loud reading it and had tears when the dog is locked in the car and the description of the chaos.

The tap is dripping,
It keeps me awake
In the morning
there will be a lake.

Thank you for starting this thread OP. I’d forgotten just how much I love Adrian Mole and Sue Townsend’s other books. I started reading The woman who went to bed for a year this morning and it’s so funny. Sue Townsend is such a great author.

Fav book series ever. Remember Bert Baxter and the beetroot and his toenails. And Queenie I think. The original series had 2 actors didn't it. Stephen Mangan took over.

I have a copy of one of her books signed by her for my 30th. One of my most treasured possessions.

The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year is also fabulous.

Of his Dad:
"He shot out of bed because he thought the Falklands lay off the coast of Scotland. When I pointed out that they were eight thousand miles away he got back into bed and pulled the covers over his head”

I am so jealous!

I’m Sue’s Daughter in law. This thread popped up on google.
What a lovely thread to read and your kind words about Sue and your love for her and her books
xx

How lovely of you to post.

Thank you for this thread, I really needed the cheering up today, I’ve read these books soooooo many times. I saw a lot of myself and the way my family lived in those books. We had “the dog” and then “the new dog” and then “the old new dog”,

I have so many favourite bits but Sabre chewing the sink pops in my head every time I see an Alsatian.

I started reading the books out loud to my 19 at the time year old daughter after she’d heard me laughing. My husband had read them when he was a kid but also started listening in as he said something about the way I read them out made them sound even funnier.

I literally just created an account to leave you a message.
It’s so comforting to us to read everyone’s memories of the books and the impact Sue’s writing had xx

We’re all so glad x hope you can see that for us, Sue was pure genius, it seems many of us have everything she ever wrote and have joyfully read, absorbed and re-read many many times. Much more than simply reading, her writing created a wonderful imaginary world that we love to revisit time and again. I was in two minds as to whether to start this thread but I’m so pleased I did because it’s been brilliant to be with people that ‘get’ Adrian and truly appreciate the comic genius that created him on their shared birthday x

That’s so lovely of you xx
It’s been a wonderful read. Sue was truly a wonderful person xx

Sue Townsend was brilliant.
What’s also lovely is her books are being passed on to the next generation. My friend has bought copies her teenage sons who are now Adrian Mole fans and their friends have all read the books too. It might be ……. years since they were written but the love of Adrian Mole continues.

I wouldn’t normally dream of asking this as it’s frightfully cheeky, however, you posting on this thread is never something I could have hoped for in my wildest dreams, so this is probably a chance in a lifetime for many of us.

Would you and your family consider doing a thread about Sue at some point in the future - perhaps an ‘ask me anything?’

I’ve done the same as your friend! Every child of family and friends receives ‘The secret diary of Adrian Mole’ on their 13 3/4 birthday 😀

Love to hear that the next generation are reading this!
I remember it being part of the curriculum when I was younger

Thank you for asking. I can speak with the rest of the family and come back to you.
There are some lovely things happening this year that I can keep you updated with too.

I’m a teacher, and there’s a poster in the school library of me reading my recommended book, which is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole ❤️ one girl told me that she’d read it based on my recommendation and her favourite character was the dog

Thank you so much for considering our ask, really so wonderful of you.

so excited to hear that there are lovely things happening this year, I’m certain every one on this thread would love to be kept updated x

thank you again for taking the trouble to create an account to post, beyond our wildest dreams x

Amazing ❤️ xxx

All of this!

I'm pretty sure I read the first book, but it was a long time ago. Time for a re-read, I think. I remember the TV series. The theme tune pops into my head occasionally - "I'm profoundly in love with Pandora.....". I read 'The Queen and I' based on a MN recommendation and I loved it.

We've only just started the unit on comedy so are not there yet! But I will report back :-)

Pandora I adore ya I implore ye don’t ignore me!

I cried my eyes out at the prostate years. Not as much as at the end of The Queen and I with the empty packets in the cupboard it broke me.

This is so lovely of you to post. Sue’s books are fantastic and I’ve re read them many times. I loved the Adrian Mole books as a teenager and did one of my GCSE essays based on Barry Kent’s point of view. My teacher loved it and I got an A and an A overall my previous grades were E then D. So I always have Sue Townsend to thank for finally passing my English GCSE.